User Interface (UI) questions

[LtWarhound (OP)]

Got some general UI questions:

1) F2: Population and Production screen.   Problem: The Population Locations list is pretty annoying once I start working with more a handful of systems.   The default sort seems to be highest population first, then a mixed up jumble of colonies with no population.   The colonies with no population seems to change order, and I haven't figured out what the sort criteria there is.   Its fine when there are only a handful of colonies, but right now I have a large mixed list of populated colonies, mining colonies (fixed and mobile), fuel dumps and locations being surveyed by geological teams.   Any time I have to try to find 'Stevenage-C VIII Asteroid #60' I have to manually search through the list to locate it.   Painful.
 
Question: Is there a way to sort the Population Locations list, and is there a way to force it to group by system?  Or an existing screen I've overlooked that lets me do something like this?

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2) F12: Task Groups screen.   Problem: Like the Population Locations list, the Details and Special Orders: Name dropdown is fine when working with a handful of task groups.   But as the fleets grow, the list becomes pretty lengthy, and only a rigidly adhered to name standard allows me to (painfully) find the ship or fleet I need.   I tried breaking the ships into multiple Task Forces, slotting all the PDCs and picket task groups out of the default Fleet Headquarters task force and into their own Task Force, for example, but this still leaves me scrolling through all the task groups in all the task forces in one looonnggg dropdown list.

Q: is there a better way?  Some screen I missed or something that lets me break the task groups dropdown into a more manageable order or subset?

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Those two are the most used sections of the Aurora UI for me.   If there are other options, I'm all ears.   There are several other smaller 'quirks' of the UI I find awkward, but I'm (mostly) found ways around them, so I just ignore them.   The inability to sort damn near anywhere is probably the most irritating, but I understand Steve has only 24 hours in a day.

[sloanjh]

Question: Is there a way to sort the Population Locations list, and is there a way to force it to group by system?  Or an existing screen I've overlooked that lets me do something like this?

I put a suggestion into the suggestions thread a few weeks ago about this very same issue.  Feel free to post a "me too" there with your take on it....

Q: is there a better way?  Some screen I missed or something that lets me break the task groups dropdown into a more manageable order or subset?

Two suggestion:
1)  I have a unique first letter for most of my TG types, so when I hit the letter it goes to the correct region of the list.  Not perfect but helps a lot.  And yes, I realize you're probably already doing this - I'm just doing the due diligence here   For example, my picket TG (of which I've got scads, since I picket pretty much every WP) are named "zPicket nnn" - this gets them out of the way of the other TG in the list....

2)  Use the 4th tab (of F12), Luke.  What you might not know is that if you click on a ship in the 4th tab, then it selects that ship's TG in the dropdown.  This helps A LOT.  If you set up a reasonable TOE, this should save you from quite a bit of nastyness.

John

[Thiosk]

Incidentally, it appears that if you create a new task FORCE you can separate out all the garbage groups from your active fleets; another dropdown to scroll around in but thats life!

[sloanjh]

Incidentally, it appears that if you create a new task FORCE you can separate out all the garbage groups from your active fleets; another dropdown to scroll around in but thats life!

? ? ? ?  Where are you talking about?  The TF selector on the first tab of F12 is an old (broken) control for setting the TF of a TG.  I just tried fiddling with it in hopes that Steve had turned it into a selector, but no such luck.

John

[Ziusudra]

You use the New TF button at the bottom of the Ctrl+F4 window to create the TF, then the TF selector on the F12 window.

I did this in my last game (5.42) where I had a Training TF. Once ships finished training I would transfer them to the main TF. This was for role-playing as my highest ranking officer had a lousy training bonus, but it seemed wrong not having him as the fleet commander.

[sloanjh]

You use the New TF button at the bottom of the Ctrl+F4 window to create the TF, then the TF selector on the F12 window.

I did this in my last game (5.42) where I had a Training TF. Once ships finished training I would transfer them to the main TF. This was for role-playing as my highest ranking officer had a lousy training bonus, but it seemed wrong not having him as the fleet commander.

Ok, looks like the task force selector on the 1st tab of the F12 screen is not broken - Steve must have fixed it....

I think I misunderstood what you guys were saying - if you're saying that the selector can be used to change the TF to which a TG is assigned (and the assignment sticks), then that's the expected (unbroken) behavior.  Since the 4th tab was introduced, the typical way to do this was to use the "branch+sub" button to create a new TG - it would show up in the correct (from 4 tab organization table) TF.  I was hoping for a way to filter the TG dropdown list so only TG in a particular TF show up....


John

[Ziusudra]

Ah, yes, Thiosk was talking about how it only shows the TGs assigned to the current TF on the TF (Ctrl+F4) window.

I do think it would be nice to be able to open the TG window for the selected TG from the TF window. I sometimes use the TF window to see what all the TGs are doing, or not doing.

[sloanjh]

Ah, yes, Thiosk was talking about how it only shows the TGs assigned to the current TF on the TF (Ctrl+F4) window.

Ah, ok. 

I do think it would be nice to be able to open the TG window for the selected TG from the TF window. I sometimes use the TF window to see what all the TGs are doing, or not doing.

The current way to do this is to go to the 4th tab of F12.  You've got a tree view of your organization (it's best to keep most branches minimized ).  If you click on a ship, then the TG in which the ship currently lives becomes selected in F12.

You're right - being able to open F12 with a TG selected by double-clicking in ctrl-F4 would be nice.

John

[sloanjh]

Ok, looks like the task force selector on the 1st tab of the F12 screen is not broken - Steve must have fixed it....

(I'm replying here to the thread that's going on in Suggestions so that we don't clutter up Suggestions with a discussion of whether or not this works.)

Never mind - I just checked more carefully and it is broken.  The problem is that you have to switch away from the TG in order to see the TF selection change.  I'm pretty sure that I forgot to do that when I looked at it in this thread.

John